The wealthy are always so GD worried some poor people are gonna commit some small time fraud. Meanwhile, big corporations are committing HUGE afraid. Just look at defense contractors. Why? Because we have all been taught to see the wealthy as virtuous and to see the poor as lazy and unworthy.

A planetary atlas of plankton 🪐 Closing the year with a bang: out @cellcellpress.bsky.social the @dudinlab.bsky.social & @gautamdey.bsky.social labs used ultrastructure Expansion Microscopy to reveal the stunning cytoskeletal diversity of over 200 plankton species! A #sciart 🧵 @embl.org

Take-home lesson we ALL need to learn: Resistance works and capitulation doesn't!

Tour de force #UExM study of #protist #cytoskeleton structures (>200 species🤯), led by @dudinlab.bsky.social, @gautamdey.bsky.social. A must for #tubulin & #centrin aficionados🤩 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Bark spiders are some of nature’s best engineers. They spin webs that stretch across entire rivers in Madagascar; their silk is stronger than steel—and the toughest on Earth. But only females craft the mightiest webs, according to a new study. https://scim.ag/4pmXX8B

Grateful to @pewtrusts.org for funding our snow fly work, in collaboration with Sebastian Brauchi at Universidad Austral de Chile. We are now looking for post-docs to work on the biophysical mechanisms that allow snow fly neurons and muscles to function below zero. newsroom.uw.edu/news-release...

Throwback to 2023 Papua New Guinea fieldwork: these are Dracula ants (Mystrium sp.) named for the unusual habit of feeding on the blood of their own children 🧛‍♂️ They’re also famous for snapping their jaws shut at lightning speed- currently the fastest known animal movement ever recorded.

Are you very busy but still want to learn what Aphelids are and why they are important to understand the evolution of Fungi? Then check out our “Quick guide” on Aphelids published in collaboration with @deemteam.bsky.social, Sergey and Guifré. #protistsonsky doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

🗞️ New preprint from the lab, led by our postdoc Ana Garoña (not on here) in collab with @andreagiometto.bsky.social: “Experimental evolution of cellular miniaturization reveals a mechanism for cell size evolution”, aka: “honey, we shrank the yeasts!” 🎥 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

One of the coolest stories I’ve seen in a while

How animals detect the Earth’s magnetic field remains a mystery in sensory biology. In Science, researchers used whole brain activity mapping, tissue clearing, and light sheet microscopy to identify neuronal populations activated by magnetic stimuli in the pigeon. https://scim.ag/48szWXT

Optogenetics is poised to move from a research tool to new therapies—if scientists can show it’s safe. https://scim.ag/48VQ7gt

I am thrilled to share our latest work led by @zurisullivan.bsky.social in collaboration with @moffittlab.bsky.social ! We find that the brain encodes distinct, pathogen-specific sickness states across behavior, physiology, neural activity, and gene expression 1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Canada’s largest marine university research facility opens at Beaty Centre for Marine Biodiversity #Halifax #NovaScotia www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/nov...

The final version of the clonal raider ant reference brain is now out OA in @currentbiology.bsky.social: 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Unimaginable cruelty

A bubble coral shrimp (Hamopontonia physogrya). This species is very small, typically less than 1 cm long. It is often found in bubble corals. The shrimp helps clean the corals of parasites and debris, while being provided with shelter in return. #marinelife #macrophotography

The domestic cat may be a far more recent arrival to Europe than previously thought, a new Science study. finds. The results offer new insight into one of humanity’s most enigmatic animal companions and identify North Africa as the cradle of the modern housecat. Learn more: https://scim.ag/44kov1S

Thats 216 biomedical PhD students for their whole degree, or 140 2 year R21 grants, or 30 5 year R01 grants, or one fired football coach...

Pablo Villar and team uncover molecules and receptors underlying octopus mating. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thrilled to share our new paper! With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste. Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Some archaea—an ancient group of microorganisms—have an entirely novel genetic code, according to a new study in Science. The findings expand our understanding of how alternative genetic codes evolve and hint at new molecular tools for biotechnology applications. https://scim.ag/4omApQ7

Public servants, artists, cultural figures, heads of nonprofits and industry. Meet our Transition Committees:

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth! #protistsonsky 🧵

Check out that spindle 🤩🔥 At 63C, most eukaryotic cells would be busy exploding noisily, forget even trying to divide. The microbial universe never ceases to astound 😍 Thanks for letting us be a tiny part of this! #ExpandThemAll

In a massive backlash against MAGA fascism, Democrats have now swept school board elections in Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio and defeating all terrorist Moms For Liberty candidates in the process. Much more of this please, we have a democracy to rescue. 💙👊

Each such discovery is a game changer for our understanding of eukaryote evolution, and this paper is no exception. Meet Solarion, which displays yet again novel types of subcellular structures. Congrats to all authors on a fascinating story. #protistsonsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

WOW can not wait to deep dive into this one absolutely insane!!

A global screen for magnetically induced neuronal activity in the pigeon brain www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... - so cool! 🐦🧠

Nature research paper: Rewiring an olfactory circuit by altering cell-surface combinatorial code go.nature.com/3MbCoZT

After analyzing the DNA sequences from 357 modern and 22 historic specimens, new research led by @yukihaba.bsky.social and @lindymcbr.bsky.social at @science.org uncovers the true, ancient origin of the "London Underground mosquito."

How do cells adapt morphology to function? In a 🔥 preprint by @zjmaggiexu.bsky.social , with @dudinlab.bsky.social and @amyweeks.bsky.social , we identify a self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit that optimizes the feeding trap structure of the suctorian P. collini. 🧵 tinyurl.com/4k8nv926

@rorycoleman.bsky.social and I wrote an opinion piece called 'From neurons to novelty: Circuit mechanisms shaping courtship evolution' We argue that now is a great time for neuro-evo research www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Axonal pathfinding of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells forms the optic nerve. Credit to Dr. Matthew Bostock @houartlab.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

Seahorses have a unique sex role reversal with male pregnancy involving a brood pouch, an evolutionarily novel organ. This study uses single-cell genomics and in vivo experiments to reveal the cellular basis and molecular mechanism of pouch development and diversity 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really cool new tech to engineer native gut bacteria inside living animals using mobile CRISPR-associated transposases! Non-engrafting donor E. coli + broad-host-range conjugation system + guide-RNA–directed targeting www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #microsky #microbiomesky 🧪

Just gonna put this here for now www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... bsky.app/profile/jlst...

v sad to hear Antonio García-Bellido's passing. his work on mitotic clones led to fundamental insights such as compartment boundaries, enabled post-embryonic analysis of lethals, and revealed autonomous vs non-autonomous effects of mutants. and founding father of Spanish DB and Drosophila schools.🪰

Wow such cool cell biology goin on here

Wound healing is a hallmark feature of all life, including single cells. In a new preprint, Ambika Nadkarni @biochembika.bsky.social investigates a new dimension in cellular wound healing: how cells recover AFTER the wound has been closed www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In a new #SciencePolicyForum, researchers review the growing ethical and social concerns related to advances in organoid and assembloid research and call for international collaboration and oversight to monitor and advise this rapidly developing field. https://scim.ag/47KMGY2

Excited to return as co-director of the CSHL Drosophila 🪰Neurobiology course in 2026! Application Deadline: March 27 meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx... @cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlaboratory.bsky.social @cshlcourses.bsky.social #cshlflycourse #scicomm #drosophila 🪰🧪

🧪🔬🧬🎓So #JamesWatson is dead. Should we honor him for his undeniable essential contributions to modern biology? No because he was an antisemite, a racist, an eugenecist, a sexist who tried to steal the work of #RosalindFranklin without crediting her. A terrible scientist and human being.

We finally made it over here ! And excited to share our new paper on mechanical forces regulating stem cell plasticity in colorectal cancer, involving force transduction via mechanosensitive calcium channels! www.cell.com/cell-reports...

An Asgard archaeon with internal membrane compartments Brilliant study led by @fmacleod.bsky.social and Andriko von Kügelgen. Tight collaboration with @buzzbaum.bsky.social and lab. Congrats to all authors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A judge has dismissed a final claim by prominent biologist David Sabatini against his former employer and curtailed Sabatini’s lawsuit directed at the woman who accused him of sexual harassment. https://scim.ag/3JBnQCc

Parental care, and more complex cooperative systems of care, have independently evolved in hundreds of animal lineages. In an article published today, we explore how these behaviors evolve 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭l shorturl.at/g5OPw /1

New article from the lab out today, in which we discuss how social behavior evolves at the molecular level. From parenting across the animal tree of life to caste systems in social insects, it’s all connected (and, therefore, slowly starts to make sense)…